Grown men and women told me they wept over that scene. Marcus Peters then completes the verse: “For the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his gods.” And how can men die better, than facing fearful odds….” “Then out spake brave Horatius, The Captain of the gate: To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late. “Never surrender!” Their response brings tears to the Prime Minister’s eyes, and he begins reciting from Macaulay’s Lays of Ancient Rome. After all, he tells them: “We might, if we ask very nicely, get very favorable terms from Mr. He wishes to ask “the British people” whether they should fight on or make peace. (The first was in the 1920s, when he couldn’t find his way out and had to be rescued.) He goes there as the Germans are rolling up Europe. Whom should he meet but Prime Minister Churchill ( Gary Oldman)! The scene (fiction) forms a dramatic moment in Darkest Hour, Joe Wright’s great film on Churchill in 1940.Ĭhurchill, per the movie, has entered the Underground for the second time in his life. Orwell added that the possibility of negotiations didn’t matter further as the working class already felt subordinated by the parliamentary elite.Marcus Peters ( Adé Dee Haastrup) is a neatly dressed West Indian riding the London Underground on. An essay from The Complete Works of George Orwell: A Patriot After All, 1940-1941 finds journalist and writer George Orwell mentioning that some British people were dubious or didn’t bother much whether Britain made peace with the Germans or not. However, as Churchill’s grandson Lord Soames told Daily Express, “ The idea of my grandfather on the Underground is absolutely preposterous.” It is also doubtful that the working-class population would have readily nodded in agreement with Churchill and even cheered for his decisions as shown in Darkest Hour. However, as reported by The Wrap, screenwriter McCarten felt that such a moment could have happened in real life as Churchill had the tendency to disappear suddenly and talk to the public. ![]() This scene is perhaps the biggest Darkest Hour change as there is no historical evidence to support this interaction. His compatriots express their desire to still fight Hitler. Still conflicted over his decision not to surrender to Germany, Churchill asks the startled passengers on the train about what they feel. While David Schofield plays Attlee in the movie, his role is very limited and he hardly has any speaking parts during the parliamentary arguments.Ī particularly dramatic scene from Darkest Hour finds the cigar-smoking Prime Minister taking the London Underground for the first time. ![]() Ignoring Attlee’s vital role is just one more failing in a deeply flawed film”. ![]() ![]() He adds, “ in May 1940 its leaders gave Churchill the unequivocal support he needed when refusing to surrender. This is the argument forwarded by modern history professor Adrian Smith in The New Statesman. As Adam Gopnik wrote in The New Yorker, “ it was the steadfast anti-Nazism of Attlee and his Labour colleagues that saved the day – a vital truth badly underdramatized in Darkest Hour.”ĭespite their ideological differences with the Conservatives, the Labour representatives did vocally support Churchill as opposed to Halifax who still believed a deal could be brokered with Adolf Hitler. Darkest Hour deserves credit for accurately portraying the Conservative in-fighting between Churchill and other party supremos like Lord Halifax but it hardly puts the spotlight on the other party in question. While the Conservative Churchill did protest against a peace treaty with Germany, the anti-Nazi sentiments echoed within the Labour parliamentarians like Clement Attlee were also crucial. A noteworthy Darkest Hour change from actual history is the underrepresentation of the Labour Party.
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